The Dig
by xpancake
Summary: Twelve year old Kenzan was as excited as a kid could get. He was at a fossil dig, he made a new Australian friend named Jim, it was going well. Then again, that sometimes changes.


Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-gi-oh GX, the characters, etc.

* * *

Twelve year old Kenzan hopped out of the SUV, the sun reflecting off the exterior of the car. It was early in the day, yet it was brutally warm outside. The ground beneath the boy was baking in the heat. The young dinosaur-obsessed boy was oblivious to this fact. He was just excited to be here.

Through a program a local museum was offering, Kenzan gained the opportunity to participate in an expedition to the western US. The group was going to set up camp near a dig site known for a variety of fossils, including fish, insects, and many other creatures that once lived in the area. Through this program, Kenzan would get the opportunity to participate in the fieldwork involved with paleontology while learning about the science. While usually Kenzan slacked off when it came to anything relating to education, this was an exception since he was actually interested in it. He couldn't believe he got selected to be a part of this program. The people who ran this program were very selective when it came to who got to join. Apparently this year, only two youths were allowed to join the qualified workers.

As Kenzan set up his tent a short distance from those of the rest of the group, he saw another SUV headed towards the campsite. The last passenger to get out was a boy around his age. He was tall, dressed like a western cowboy, and had bandages over his right eye. His left eye was a shade of blue. His hair was a spiky black mess under the cowboy hat. He turned towards Kenzan and grinned as he carried a large bag, which probably contained camping gear, on his back. The other boy walked over and placed his luggage next to Kenzan's tent.

"Hey mate, I guess you're the other accepted applicant." At a closer glance, the other boy looked about 14 years old. He held out his hand. "The name's Jim. Jim Cook."

Kenzan looked up at the taller boy, took the hand, and shook it. He had an odd feeling that they would become fast friends.

* * *

Kenzan's gut feeling was correct, for in the course of that first day of helping out the paleontologists with a few errands, he already became good friends with the other youth. As they sat in Jim's larger tent, they decided to start asking various questions about themselves, besides the fact that they had an interest in paleontology.

"So, tell me about yourself. Anything interesting?" Kenzan was slightly startled by Jim's blunt question, but did not hesitate to answer.

"Um, not really, I like playing Duel Monsters."

Jim grinned. "Me too!"

In the midst of a discussion about the card game, Kenzan asked an out-of-the-blue question. "So, have any pets?"

Jim tilted his hand in a manner that said the answer was yes and no. "In other's eyes, yes, but I consider Karen family."

"So what is Karen?"

"A crocodile."

Kenzan choked on air. "A crocodile!"

Jim nodded. "Yup, my best buddy. Lost my eye in an attempt to save her." He pointed to his bandaged eye.

Kenzan gulped. "So, what exactly happened?"

Jim shrugged. "After getting her away from an animal trap we ended up falling off a cliff."

Kenzan's eyes widened further. "A cliff!"

Jim nodded. "That's how my eye got damaged. Then I woke up and this really old man explained that he implanted an artifact in my eye that I can use to save my friends under certain conditions. One time use though." He took off his hat and unwrapped the bandages from his eye, revealing the eye of Oricalcum, which looked large in the slightly smaller head of the young teenager. Kenzan just stared in awe at the fake eye. "If this wasn't there, my eye would probably be just a socket." Kenzan only nodded.

After Jim rewrapped the bandages around his eyes, all Kenzan could say was "Well, there's no point I asking if your life is interesting…"

Jim merely shook his head and laughed before deciding to go asleep whether he had company or not.

* * *

"Doesn't that thing hurt though?" Kenzan pointed to Jim's eye while balancing a box in his hands. He leaned on a nearby rock wall and adjusted the weight of the boxes.

Jim nodded. "On rare occasions." 'During meteor showers. Now those are killer, in more ways than one.' Kenzan merely shrugged before tripping over something half buried in the ground.

Kenzan looked down. "Was this here yesterday?"

Jim shrugged. "Probably was. There was a bit of wind yesterday, might have blown some dirt around. That and possibly centuries worth of wind wearing down the rock." He called for one of the paleontologists on the team to take a look. One of the younger ones, a female one that just got her degree, came over, patted the boys on the head, and smiled.

"Congratulations boys, I think we have a bone here. Of what, I can't tell yet. Could you very carefully remove the rest of the rock and dirt surrounding it?" She showed the boys how to do that. "I'll be back with the rest of the gear for this in a few minutes."

Jim raised his visible eyebrow. 'She must be confident to trust two boys in their early teens to remove the rock around a fossil who knows how many million years old…'

Kenzan grinned. "You hear that, we actually found something!"

"No, you found something, mate. You're the one that tripped on it. Good on ya!" Kenzan rolled his eyes at the typical Australian slang.

"Yeah, well, can you help me get rid of some of this dirt?" Kenan aimed to first break one of the pieces a few feet away from the edge of the rock wall.

"Um, I might not know as much about geology as I'd like to, but I do know enough, and I don't think that's such a good idea." Before Jim's warning could be taken into consideration, the rock bed was broken, and a small crack crawled up the rock wall until it reached a pile of rocks twenty feet above. The ledge under the piles broke, and the rocks began tumbling down the wall straight towards Jim.

"Look out!" Kenzan pushed Jim out of the way as the rocks began hitting his body.

All Jim could do after calling for help was stare. 'I can't do anything about this! Where's a meteor when you need one?' When the mini rock slide ended, Jim started lifting rocks out of the way and off of Kenzan's now crushed leg. He looked down at the now exposed one, which at a closer glance seemed to be that of a carnivorous dinosaur.

Jim pondered this a moment. 'It's a crazy idea, but it just might work…'

* * *

"Hey kid." Jim looked up as a doctor walked towards him. He recognized this doctor as the one he told his idea to before they took care of Kenzan. "Well, your idea was a bit controversial, and surreal, but we tried it, and it worked. Your friend's leg is saved." Jim sighed in relief. He didn't need his eye to be able to help out. "He should recover just fine after some physical therapy." The doctor took a glance down at the clipboard in his hands. "There is some bad news."

Jim's head jerked up. "Bad news?"

The doctor nodded. "Yeah, he suffered a blow to the head, no concussion or anything, but he is suffering from some amnesia. Whether it's temporary or permanent, we're not sure of yet."

Jim tilted his head and frowned in worry. "What can't he remember?"

"Well, we asked him so far about what's happened, he remembers meeting several people at this dig, but he can't remember the details of all of them. By that, I mean he knows he met a person, but nothing else rings a bell in his head. You happen to be one of those people kid." At this news, the young Jim looked quite depressed. "Sorry to be the bearer of the bad news kid." He handed a sheet of paper to Jim. "Give this to whoever is head of that dig." Jim only nodded as he headed outside towards the waiting SUV.

Once the SUV returned to the dig, the young paleontologist from earlier called out to him. "Hey kid!" He walked closer to her and realized this is where Kenzan tripped over the bone now in his leg. "Guess what, you and your buddy ended up finding a dinosaur skeleton. From what we've managed to expose so far, it looks like a tyrannosaurus rex!" He handed the excited woman the sheet of paper the doctor gave him. She skimmed it. "Ouch, that bites." She turned towards the exposed bone. "Wanna help?" Jim was still a little crestfallen. "You can brag to your friends that you helped excavate a T-rex." The attempt to cheer Jim up failed, but he immediately started helping her as the camp was abuzz with activity.

* * *

-(Five Years Later)-

Jim collected himself after being attacked by Kenzan who, according to his friends, was acting as crazy as Karen, his crocodile, was due to the dinosaur bone in his leg that gave him dinosaur dna.

At this explanation, Jim's eye widened a fraction. The boy did look familiar. Same physical appearance, same taste in clothes and headgear, same voice. The story about the dinosaur bone in his leg clinched it. This was the same boy he had met at that dig 5 years ago. The same boy he soon became friends with and couldn't help after said boy got caught in a rock slide after pushing him out of it. The same boy that for the sake of his legs, he proposed the crazy idea of using the fossil as a bone substitute, even if it did go against what he believed the fate of the fossil should have been. He preferred study over anatomy substitution purposes. "And just how did you get a fossil in your leg mate?"

Kenzan growled, but seemed to have gained control over himself. "For your information, I found it and it saved my leg after this accident I had at a dig."

"And why were you digging up fossils if you seem so against their rest being disturbed, eh?" At this, Kenzan glared at the taller boy. The look made it obvious that he had no recollection of ever meeting him before recently. That doctor was right. Kenzan had a bad bout of long term amnesia.

Jim inwardly sighed yet smiled. 'My have times changed.' "Well, the rock slide didn't do any other damage to you I'm guessing."

Kenzan's eyes widened as he continued glaring. "Who told you that it was in a rock slide?"

Jim merely smirked. "An old, forgotten friend of yours at the dig told me."

* * *

Pancake: Jim's age at the beginning might be wrong time wise (He's either 18 or 19). The stuff going on at the dig is not that specific since I have no idea what really goes on. Anyways, this idea crept into my mind after thinking about the fact that, according to the series, they both partook in archeological digs (even though really it's paleontology people...) So, review with criticism, commentary, etc.


End file.
